After a quick stop to pick up some rope and tie up Derlur (tension tie up, like old samurai movies, starts with basically a slip knot around his neck, and tension holds the arms together down to the wrists, where they are tied up. with another slip knot type knot)
OtO pulls Derlur along, silencing his speaking with a yank to the rope and a cuff to the head.
“SHADDUP” in Earther he would say.
OtO wouldn’t speak to Derlur, but would treat him as a prisoner, waiting for the train to the colonies.
As they waited at the train station, a hovertruck pulls up.
The door swings open and a ginger haired and pigtailed bastard female in black plate armor motioned to OtO.
“Mr. V sent me. I under stand you might be a little nervous.
Hop on in.”
OtO asked,“Who are you?”
The bastard replied,“You can call me Amber. I work for Mr. V.
And you Mr. the Olgog deserve some payment.”
A dread mek quietly sits in the driver seat of the Hovertruck.
It gives Derlur the Nomad a strange look as if scanning him as he entered.
OtO scans the truck, making notes of where it was reinforced and what armourments everyone has. He also notes that this bastard has a different name that the one working for mc murphy (tilde?).
He would stand up say move and yank the rope to send Derlur stumbling and would climb into the truck, pulling Derlur in after him.
“Let’s go”
OtO watched the door close and Amber leans back. Lifting up a bottle of K’iou liquor, she downed a long draught and then offered it to both Olgog and Derlur. Both abstained not quite trusting the tiny dark paladin.
“Trust me you’ll want it. The trip to Underbase is quite…bumpy. Your first time in Underbase you’ll learn the rules. Only Mekkie Dread over here goes in and out. You want in, you ride the bumpy ride warts and all.”
“Olgog no agree to any bumps in ride,” snarled OtO.
“Hey Friend,” replied Amber in a calming voice, “Just trying to help, the booze helps with the nausia.”
“Nausia?” OtO barked, “Why Nausia?”
At that moment and unknown technomantic device disabled his brain. Going into suspended animation in the back seat, both he and Amber fell forward drooling on themselves.
Derlur realized his preparations had protected him, but he emulated their actions to not alert the Dread Mek.
The Mek ignored him completely and continued driving. To Derlur’s annoyance, the windows of the vehicle were soon covered over by sand, rendering all visual information unknown.
Two hours later, after much backtracking and what Derlur swore were arbitrary circles the vehicle finally came to a stop. The sand was washed off by a power hose carried by a pair of gunmetal grey Hydraulic Knights. The door opened and they sprayed the room with a cloud of chilling cold. Derlur watched the mouths and noses of OtO and Amber frost over for a moment and then warm again.
The Hydraulic Knights leaned in, pulled both OtO and Derlur from the vehicle.
“Should we grab half pint?” asked one renegade Hydraulic Knight.
“Leave Amber for now, it will save the Old Vlad a migraine while he interrogates this Nomad fool,” replied the other renegade.
“Why does he keep the little ones around?” asked the first renegade.
“Why do you ask so many damn questions,” replied the other as he reached for the Magnetic Lift controls, “You know full well, the old man wants anything McMurphy has. McMurphy has Tilde-clones, Old Vlad wants some Tilde-clones of his own. McMurphy has Hydraulic Knights…”
“And the Boss has us and the crew, But why are our Tilde-clones all messed up Morgothian Knights?” pestered the first renegade.
“Ask Amber about Mr. Dreamy, and I’m sure she will be happy to tell you all about it,” said the other renegade.
The magnetic lift finally reached the appointed floor, and the Knights walked down a few halls until they reached a wide living room.
They placed OtO on a comfy chair, and tossed Derlur like a ragdoll on a nearby couch. Derlur let himself crumple as if he were unconscious.
A pair of medical technicians entered followed by a handsome young blond man with a harelip. He watched them dispassionately as the medics took blood, brain and bone samples. Each time they took a sample from OtO, they administered a nanite injection to heal the damage done.
Quite horrific was the moment they took brain samples. But OtO was none the wiser and fully restored without a single wound when the Medics finally walked away from his body. A small fluid bag filled with a nutrient broth were hooked up to OtO’s arm.
The technicians and the blond man left.
Derlur waited. He knew from the cameras in the corner of the room that they were being watched. Only thing to do was play along.
Nearly a week passed before the blond man and the two medics returned. This time they groomed OtO, cleaning and manicuring his fur, and took some more samples.
Finally after another hour of tests and scans, the medics left.
The blond man leaned over and used a nanite injector to give a final curative to OtO before sitting down across from him. Derlur could feel the blond man’s eyes on him, but the blond man ignored him for the moment.
OtO woke up with a start. He saw a odd blond man sitting calmly across from him. The man was wearing a simple inexpensive suit.
"Welcome Mr. The Olgog. You may call me the Old VLAD. I used to run the organization that Mr. McMurphy currently runs. My desire to eliminate the vampire despot Colony General Malthus was used as an excuse to end my vigilant protection of the colonies. My agents were all executed openly, or like you, were forced to wear a bomb collar if they decided to stay in colonial employ.
I know I never hired you on during your time in EEF service. But I did watch your career closely. You have excellent ideas, but struggle with diplomacy. So I have decided to gift you and army…"
The Old VLAD waited for OtOs eyes to widen in disbelief. Then he triggered the holographic display. It showed the inside of a warehouse. The windows showed snow on the ground, so it couldn’t be here in the Goblin Lands. Inside the warehouse were racks and racks of cloning tubes. Each filled with a different copy of Olgog the Olgog. Each one obviously subtly modified. Some were thicker and beefier. Some were thinner and more wirey. But all were distinctively him.
"I may have hundreds of clones to provide you as an Army, Mr. The Olgog, and I will not be stingy with arms and armor. But I will closely regulate the flow of these cloned soldiers to you.
You should also be aware, they have limited operational timelines. I will program their life-limits for each mission, to make sure we don’t have any rogue clones running around mucking things up. I do try and learn from my mistakes after all."
The Old VLAD placed a stack of gold bricks in front of OtO.
“Consider this your payment for this meeting. Whether you take my offer or ignore it,” said the Old VLAD, “But I think you will see the value in having cloned soldiers on call.
Tell me Mr. The Olgog have I piqued your interest? Or should I just have my assistant press the flush button on the cloning tubes?”
curses went through OtO’s mind, where was he, how much time had he lost? Making sure never to loose his composer, he sat there making sure to observe everything he can. After about 10 minuets, he began to speak in Bruski
It’s a start.
I don’t have time for games, this is only the beginning of what I need. You know that, I know that. You also know that operational time limits are going to be an hindrance to me.
There are several ways we can go about this, one is to sit here and guess at each others intentions, the other is to openly declare them.
I don’t know about you, but for the sake of time I would prefer that we speak directly about out intentions.
What is your endgame
*** OtO Waits for him to speak his goals, and if he does state them with OtO believing him, OtO will state the following when asked ***
I intent to take everything below the 38th parallel (Line drawn below which there is no colonies that belong to the olgogs). It will become a new nation distinct from the colonies. It will be maintained by me militarily, just as the EEF maintains the colonies. I wouldn’t allow VLAD or old VLAD to conduct unobserved activities, but I am open to joint operations.
As for the clones, I have read the research on why they go bad. The largest reason is because they are given memories that are heavily altered. I don’t wish to do this, I want almost pure clones with my memories. The only change I wish is different training in weapons, and I would go so far as to use an accelerated learning method to prevent any chance of corruption that you experienced.
This leaves one wildcard in my cloning plan, versions of me that can use the leyas. This would mean having one clone altered to be a leyas user, giving him my memories, then training him in use of the leyas. After that cloning him for the leyas version.
There is also some manufacturing that I need done, with a nanite capable factory. I can do this myself, but I need a programmable nanite creator. This is something that should be easy for you to come by.
Shall we come to an agreement?
The Old Vlad smiled and said, “I run a large operation.
If I had to distill down its goal, it is to eliminate the Vampire Colony General Malthus. To end his thousand year dictatorship. To free the colonies to allow an election.”
He listened to OtO patiently and respectfully.
Then he said, "It is good to know you are interested. And after hearing your terms , I am happy to begin negotiation. Here is my counter offer.
You let me handle the cloning end, I have 2,728 years of cloning research under my belt.
You will get effective cloned soldiers optimized for mission parameters. With deepest respect your comments on cloning show you have no training in the tech or the memory recovery and enhancement software. That is okay Mr. The Olgog. Luckily for you I am a master with it. My own trump card if you will.
If you want to try fighting the hundreds of thousands of warmongers dead holding the south below the colonial line is fine by me. I am not going to stop you.
I simply don’t have the nanite production device you described."
"And if you succeed in driving the Dead from the south. I’d be the first to offer my services to decipher the Kias language and codes there. I spent a few summers among the Krato studying the old Kias Wars code keys.
As for country I’m not quite sure where you would get the population. The only people down there are Dead.
But if you carve out a place down there I will happily work on joint operations. Once such a kingdom is won of course. "
The silence in the room was like a miasma, holding everything in the moment. Silently Old Vlad and OtO sized each other up, mentally playing a chess game on the scale of the universe. OtO having skill and intelligence and Old Vlad primarily having troops and a network available to him. Each advantage offsets the others advantages, no true gains could be made.
There was little room to maneuver.
"You aren’t interested in me as a gog, your interest with me is by using me as a distraction. And I can do that, I can be a real good one.
You deal with whatever you want in the colonies, everything south is mine. This is something that we both agree on.
Without nanite production, I am severely limited. While you are unable to produce nanites at the scale I want I can build up to that point, all I need is a small nanite production device that is programmable. I have seen these at the black market of neo vargus [Not sure on the location of the big black market]. Procure me one of those, and I will do the rest.
I would need 9 clones that are direct copies of me with out the life limitation of the normal troops, barring the addition of some training. These gogs would be imperative in my plans. They also would bring most of Vlad down into the goblin lands thereby giving you more space to conduct your operations.
I’m sure you can see why these gogs would be needed, and more importantly you can see how you can use them.
The only request is that I get to oversee the process of the creation of these clones, consider it an introduction to the technology to me on your end and the guarentee on my end that they are truly what I am asking for.
** IF pressed further these are the combat skills requested**
Gog 1 * Spears
Gog 2 * Swords (dual wielding)
Gog 3 * Sniper Rifle
Gog 4 * Explosives
Gog 5 * Polearms
Gog 6 * Underwater Combat
Gog 7 * Air Combat
Gog 8 * Space Combat
Gog 9 * Leyas Combat Ranged : Leyas Combat Melee
Gog 10 [This is the science guy so no combat skills ] Planes Lore : Botany : Chemistry :Physics :Math : Mechanical/Electrical Engineering. (or a catch all skill)
The Old Vlad smiled and said, "Im fine allowing you to try and claim everything south of the provisional colonies without interference from my organization, I’ve already said that.
Im not in the habit of repeating myself, but to make our relationship run smoothly, I will. I cannot provide you the nanite device you requested. Primarily because I do not have one.
And secondarily because my own operational parameters cannot allow for any nanites beyond basic medical nanites to be used in this region. Too large a risk someone will begin tampering and making nano-plagues or nanite weapons. If my own units are limited in this capacity, you will understand that I cannot then provide you access to nanite production devices. This point is non-negotiable.
I’m sorry though Mr. The Olgog. I cannot provide you the nine clones you requested because frankly they would try and overthrow you and then…Mr. the Olgog…you would try and blame me. I already advised you that unlimited lifespan clones are not adviseable. And my cloning facilities are offlimits to all personell other than myself.
I am not offering to teach you to make your own clones…Mr. The Olgog…I must make that abundantly clear.
I am offering to make you an unlimited number of disposable units for your tactical use. To arm them and train them for free.
As you have ascertained my payment, as it were, is the distraction you provide me against the new VLAD agency and the EEF.
You simply have nothing to offer me that would encourage me to open the Pandoras Box that is teaching you to clone.
The last time I taught someone cloning it was Lurlock.
And I must admit that has not worked out well for the planet Refuge.
I can provide you the nine as you requested with a lifespan cap of six months, and provide you the memory storage units to allow me to augment their replacements so it will feel seemlessly for you as if the nine do not have a limited lifespan.
That knowledge will restrain them from trying to overthrow you and replace you.
Provided you make sure they do not discover the secret to expand their life on their own… If they do they will have no reason to keep you alive and will attempt to replace you."
Just as so long as you are aware, I have never failed in anything I set out to do. I am setting out to learn cloning, if I don’t learn it from you I will learn it from somewhere.
It seems we have come to an agreement.
The last thing gestering at Derlur , are you done with him?
The Old Vlad smiled politely, "I won’t be teaching anyone cloning, as I explained earlier. And I won’t implant that information into clones I provide you with for the same reasons I explained.
Here is a radio, it is encrypted and allow you to put in orders for clones for missions."
The radio was placed on the table in front of OtO.
Olgog the Olgog found his eyes closing of his own regard. Probably some technomantic device he grumbled in the moments before it knocked him out.
When OtO woke up again he was sitting on a bench at the Train station. Across from him sat Derlur the Nomad, uncomfortably staring at him. OtO noticed Derlur was completely unbound as he watched him.
OtO and Derlur are now free to travel again and interact in other threads.
(This thread continues for Derlur the Nomad only until otherwise stated)
Earlier that day…
Derlur saw OtO get knocked out by the Old Vlads tricks and watched as Old Vlad’s agents picked up OtO gently and brought him out of the room.
With OtO safely removed, the Old Vlad put his whole attention on Derlur, he said, "I know you are awake. Your patience is impressive. Some of those positions seem quite uncomfortable.
I am interested in hiring your father’s organization to handle a threat of mutual danger.
How does your father feel about…the servants of Warmonger?"